Variety has an article discussing the year-to-year increase of sales of George R.R. Martin’s “A Song of Ice and Fire” novels, thanks to the upcoming Game of Thrones TV series from HBO. A key quote from the article:

The lengthy tomes by George R. R. Martin are approaching triple-digit growth in year-on-year sales, according to publisher Bantam Books.

Assuming they’re talking about percentages, the series has nearly doubled in sales year-on-year ... and this is likely to explode when the show airs. Charlaine Harris’s novels all hit the bestseller list when the series took off, and though it’s unclear whether Game of Thrones can capture the same wave of new readers, it certainly aims to try. We’ve heard that Harris’s publishers noted that some of her novels increased sales many times over (I believe 4000% was noted for some of her backlist). A buyer for Barnes & Noble is quoted indicating that he certainly believed the TV show would do for GRRM’s series what True Blood did for Harris’s.

March 22nd will see the release of A Game of Thrones with brand new cover art, using an image from the TV series. 250,000 copies of the paperback will be put out in bookstores in the U.S., and Voyager in the U.K. plans to do the same sometime in mid-March according to reports. Winter is coming ... but it looks like Christmas is already here for the publishers of the series!